Mindfulness and emotion regulation--an fMRI study

Abstract

Mindfulness--an attentive non-judgmental focus on present experiences--is increasingly incorporated in psychotherapeutic treatments as a skill fostering emotion regulation. Neurobiological mechanisms of actively induced emotion regulation are associated with prefrontally mediated down-regulation of, for instance, the amygdala. We were interested in neurobiological correlates of a short mindfulness instruction during emotional arousal. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated effects of a short mindfulness intervention during the cued expectation and perception of negative and potentially negative pictures (50% probability) in 24 healthy individuals compared to 22 controls. The mindfulness intervention was associated with increased activations in prefrontal regions during the expectation of negative and potentially negative pictures compared to controls. During the perception of negative stimuli, reduced activation was identified in regions involved in emotion processing (amygdala, parahippocampal gyrus). Prefrontal and right insular activations when expecting negative pictures correlated negatively with trait mindfulness, suggesting that more mindful individuals required less regulatory resources to attenuate emotional arousal. Our findings suggest emotion regulatory effects of a short mindfulness intervention on a neurobiological level.

Keywords: amygdale; emotion regulation; fMRI; insula; mindfulness; prefrontal cortex.

© The Author (2013). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Figures

Fig. 1

Illustration of experimental task and durations. Cues are enlarged for presentation reasons. Their actual height in the experiment was about 1/40 screen size.

Fig. 2

ROI of the DMPFC (blue), amygdala (orange box), insula (green).

Fig. 3

(A) Significantly lower group mean beta weight of the mindfulness group (Mind) in the amygdala ROI (t(44) = − 2.91, P < .01) compared to the basic group (Basic),in the perception of negative pictures (ng), no group difference in the perception of neutral pictures (nt) (t(44) = − .08, P = .935). (B) Differing time courses for the amygdala ROI between groups in the perception of negative stimuli: Similarity of time courses of the perception of negative and neutral pictures only in the mindfulness group. Error bars indicate standard errors.

Fig. 4

Correlation of individual mean beta weights of the contrast expectation negative vs expectation neutral in the left DMPFC (A) and in the right anterior insula (B) with trait mindfulness scores (MAAS).

Fig. 5

(A–C) Activations in the DMPFC in the group comparison ‘mindfulness’ vs ‘basic’ of the contrast expectation negative vs expectation neutral (eng > ent). (A) Higher DMPFC activity (yellow circle) in the mindfulness group in the expectation of negative stimuli. (B) Significantly higher mean beta weight of the peak DMPFC voxel (x = −7, y = 7, z = −54) in the mindfulness group (Mind) [t(44) = 4.30, P < 0.0001] in the expectation of negative stimuli (eng) compared with the basic group (Bas), no group difference in the expectation of neutral stimuli (ent). (C) Time courses of the conditions for this region. Error bars indicate standard error.